TiPb Asks: How much will you use iMessage?

With iOS 5 Apple will be introducing iMessage, an SMS and MMS style service seamlessly integrated into the Messages app that uses your Apple ID and data plan instead of text plan... but only with other iOS 5 users. So lets say you and your special someone both have iPhones, or you have an iPod touch and your mom has an iPad, you can easily use iMessage to stay in contact. But, if you have an iPhone and your husband or wife has an Android or BlackBerry (and you stay with them!), iMessage will do you absolutely no good whatsoever.

So I have to ask, how much will you actually use iMessage? Do you and your family and friends have enough iOS devices that you'll use iMessages whenever you so wish? Or are you a lone island of iOS amid a sea of feature phone or non-iOS devices? Will you be able to cut down on your texting and save some money, or will you have to pay as much after iMessage as you did before?

And if Apple adds it to iChat on Mac and releases an app for it on Windows, would that change your answer at all? Would it get you to switch to iMessage from whatever Skype, Facebook, AIM, or other message system you're using now?

Bottom line, when Apple releases iOS 5 this October, how much will you be using iMessage?

GeorgiaSenior Editor at iMore and a practicing therapist specializing in stress and anxiety. She speaks everywhere from conferences to corporations, co-host of Vector, Review, and Isometric podcasts, and should be followed on Twitter @Georgia_Dow.

Considering almost everyone I am in regular contact with has an iPhone, I will be using iMessage ALL the time. Two people who I know that don't have an iPhone have an iPad (one a co worker of mine, the other being my dad) and I know that they'll both use iMessage often since they love their iPads. So, bottom line for me: I actually will probably hardly ever "text" now, since I literally will almost always be iMessaging instead.

To be honest, I'm surrounded my non iOS' people. Of course, there's an iPhone or iPad here and there but those users have no idea what iOS even stands for! The bottom line is, I'll use it whenever I can because it's great but as for dropping my AT&T messaging plan? Highly unlikely.

Pretty much I suppose. I have many friends with iOS devices and this is a great opportunity to text them for free in a system everybody will have. I mean, services like Viber and Skype are great, but every iOS user doesn't have it.

I can hardly wait! I've been using sub-par work arounds on my wifi iPad to text and this will resolve the problems. I'm not sure if it will send regular SMS messages to non iOs users from wifi, I guess you would need a phone number to do that. That's one of the good things about Text+, it gives you a phone number so you can text from wifi to any phone even if they don't have the app installed. It would be perfect if Apple did something similar, like assigning a phone number to your Apple I.D.

My concern is the whole have a conversation on one device pick it up on another. So if we share an iPad, will other people in my house be able to "listen in" on conversations going on on my iPhone? Serious testing before I decide to use it.

Every year, there seems to be a feature or two that most people, including myself, don't seem to "get". FaceTime seemed a silly toy to me when it was announced. I use it more than I thought. When the 3GS came out with a magnetometer, it was mocked. That tool is more versatile than many guessed.
This year, though I don't yet know how, I'm expecting iMessage, and other iOS features, to be cooler and more functional than they seem on the surface.

Most of my non-iphone friends and family now use IM (usually GTalk), so we use that instead of text messaging. (Group messaging and MMS really are not much of a factor for me.)
The two holdouts who refuse to use IM coincidentally both have iPhones, so I will probably use iMessage a lot with them, instead of SMS. Now if only I had remembered to drop down a tier to be grandfathered in before AT&T "streamlined" their options for me.

I think that I probably won't use iMessage at all... It looks great in theory, but I think texting and MMS is just fine. Not to mention only about 5 or 6 people that i text actually use an iPhone or iPad that is iMessage capable.

My contract with o2 already has unlimited text messages so it won't really apply to me or most of my friends who also have unlimited SMS. I got most of my friends using Whatsapp for sending pics and vids etc so will prob stick to it as it's cross-platform. Love the feature though.

I'm already on the cheapest plans for ATT and VZW, $5 each on GF'd plans. Most of my friends are on iOS devices now or use Google Talk, so I might ditch one or both plans. Really hoping for a desktop app on Windows and Macs with iMessage integrated, or at least Apple allows for 3rd-party devs to fill this niche. Apple should do what RIM would not - create a mobile app on other platforms or a tie in to GT.

Our office of about 10 people use to be a bunch of die-hard blackberry users but after all the random resets, freezing, lack of app memory and horrible browsing, we've already put in a request for new handsets (a la iPhone5) and it will be iMessage all day, e'ry day!!

I will continue to use Google Voice if/when the iPhone gets to Sprint. With their partnership with Google to port my existing Sprint number to Google Voice, I have not used anything else except this. Currently use it to text from my phone, my iPad, and all my computers.

I was under the impression that iMessage will be replacing the current texting app on the iPhone and will be able to determine whether the recipient is on an iOS device or not. Either way, I think the message goes through. I think iMessage simply saves you the texting cost between iOS devices and allows for native messaging on iPad and iPod touch. If this is in fact how it is intended to work, then yes, I will definitely use it. I'm wondering how it will work with iPad and iPod touch which do not have texting plans to fall back on for sending messages to non iOS recipients. I assume they will be able to talk only to other iOS devices. Many of the people I most frequently text are on iOS, so for me it should end up being useful.

It largely depends on compatibility.
-Will iMessage work with older iPhones? If not, that cuts out my parents.
-Will iMessage work with iChat? That will help a bit. Unless it only works with iChat Lion edition, which would once again undermine the usefulness.

Love it for the iPad to iPhone etc... Messaging, one thing I have not seen is multiple group messaging like BBM has. Though I have not tried to start a multi user thread since only a couple of my friends are on iOS 5 at this point. Adding it to the Mac like they did FaceTime and also to windows would be the bomb though. Lastly, with the advent of carriers dumping the low rate texting plans, the savings is really a non issue.

All I want are regular texts to show up on my iPad as well. It gets annoying having to keep picking up my iPhone to respond to text messages. IMessage is too limited. Most of my friends don't have iPhones.

Unless I'm completely off, I thought in the keynote Jobs said it's basically replacing the MMS "app". First, iMessage will determine if the other device has iOS. If so, then it sends using the email address. If not, then iMessage will send a regular SMS/MMS.
It seems a few others above a similar impression as me.
So, what's up?

90%+ of my friends are in Asia: 50% of them use BB, and 50% use iPhone 4. Collectively, we choose to use WhatsApp which gives us the best of all worlds. My i-Friends are not tech savvy and are scared to upgrade iOS regardless how simple it is hahaha. And since the are all out of the USA, having unlimited texting plan is pointless as it is domestic + Canada only.

I'll use iMessage as much as possible, and I'll force my 3GS-using friends to upgrade to iOS 5 to do it. (My iPhone 4-using friends will all insta-upgrade, so no problem there.)
SMS and text messages are grotesquely overpriced. 1 GB of text messages can easily cost over $1 million. Even with AT&T's $20 unlimited texting plan: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/how-much-does-your-data-cost/

So help out an old fart here guys please. I have an iPhone 4 and iPad 2 and 1 apple ID. if someone sends me an imessage does it get delivered to both devices?
Or do I have to choose which device to have it activated on?
I'm confused!
I already get 5000 texts a month so that's not a problem but sending an MMS for free sounds good.

As much as i use BBM if me & the Wife both switch to iPhones but i think whatsapp will be hard to beat because of its cross platform support. Also i hope an iOS5 JB is available because i wont be upgrading until it does OR i get the iPhone 5, which ever comes first.

I don't think iMessage is to be like BBM, which is an entirelly differen't application on a blackberry.
Half the time, you may not know if you're sending an iMessage, it just feels like normal texting, but its super speedy and free :)

I WILL be canceling my txt plan $5x2 for me and the g/f. Her family and my family and most of our friends have iPhones. The main two that do not most likely are going to go from Andriod--->WP7.5 by the end of this year. So iMessage will work out perfectly.

Here in South Africa almots everyone uses BB :( And those few that use iPhone use WhatsApp, which is pretty impressive. So iMessage is basically kinda WhatsApp baked into the iOS. Cant waot for it, will be a handy tool :D

Sorry but here in Germany and most of Europe we don't have unlimited SMS plans at all. (only in network plans on some carriers) I have free incoming yes but I pay over $20.00 US a month for a measly 250 outgoing. The people in the US complaining about $20 a month for unlimited should be thankful they even have the option.

I probably would use it as an alternative if my AT&T bill never gets paid and I'm stuck using wifi. I have one friend that uses a wifi based SMS app ... Other that that , I don't think I'll have much use for iMessage.

iMessage is built into SMS "Texting" if you were to text someone with an iPhone running iOS 5 it becomes an iMessage if you were to text someone on another platform it would be a regular text and take out of ur text messaging.. The whole point is its built into your phone and other iDevices (no download necessary) so automatically any iDevice running iOS 5 can receive an iMessage at no cost..

There are only five people I regularly text. Three of them have iPhones, and one of the other two has an iPod touch. Plus, I and the three people with iPhones all have iPads as well. So, I expect I’ll be using iMessage quite a lot.

I'm off contract, and pay the equivalent of $28 to text.. Although it is unlimited, thank god for that. I remember when I had my blackberry, I got 600 messages in 2 weeks lol.
So stop complaining Americans.
And even the iPhone 4 right? It's free with contract but was around $800 when it came out here. And even carrier subsidised, that only went as far down as around $400 so STFU you complaining Americans. :)
And if it's an integrated service into the default messages app, apparently I'll use it all the time! However, not everyone's lucky enough to win an iPhone 4 in competitions, or rich enough to just buy one for the sake of it. I have seen a lot more of them recently because of the free on contract.

I really can,t see this being as big as apple want it to be, its so interwined with sms i find nothing that specail about it , maybe a imsg app with a name tag (same concept as a gamertag) it would be alot better as im not over keen giving out my email or number to people i see once in a while
As someone has stated if you are txting another idevice it use imsg by default your none the wiser in this rush rush world we live in ? Wheres the fun that ?